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mbaMission was happy to be able to speak one-on-one recently with Amanda Carlson, Columbia Business School’s (CBS’s) assistant dean of admissions, about the MBA program’s resources and admissions processes.  She graciously shared some interesting insight on the following topics:

• What she feels are CBS’s greatest strengths and resources
• Her department’s recent efforts to add transparency to the admissions process
• The CBS interview process and the mind-set of the school’s interviewers toward applicants
• The trend of ever-increasing GMAT scores and the truth behind some common admissions “myths”
• What raises red flags for the school’s admissions committee

Read on for the full transcript of the conversation.

mbaMission: Amanda, thanks so much for speaking with us—I really appreciate your time. I’d love to start with a question about culture. We recently saw the CBS second-year flash mob video and were struck by what that seemed to show and say about the sense of community at CBS. I heard it took a whole year to plan! Can you give me your take on the intensity of the community at Columbia, and can you describe the culture a little?

Amanda Carlson: The admissions committee was meeting that night shortly after the flash mob had taken place, and one of the students sent a link to a member of our team, so we got to see it that very night! It was really something, and it just really warmed our hearts, and it was a perfect example of how our students really care about giving back to the community.

Our culture embraces people that really want to maximize their opportunities. There are so many different opportunities at Columbia—academic, professional, social and volunteer—and I think our students recognize that our community-driven culture can help open up opportunities that otherwise might not come about.

There’s a lot of comradery among the student population, and it’s very respectful in terms of the students appreciating what each other’s respective priorities are. I think an overarching kind of mind-set is that our students will maximize all opportunities as they come while at the same time being cognizant of giving back to the community and the school.

mbaMission: People typically think finance when they think of Columbia Business School. Would you agree with that? What do you feel CBS should be known for?

AC: What should CBS be known for? We’ve earned a great reputation as a very strong finance school, but we are so much more than just finance. One of the things that people often don’t necessarily recognize is that Columbia puts a tremendous premium on our core curriculum. All of our students receive fundamentals—such as statistics, accounting, marketing, finance—that teach them how to be good stewards and great leaders. This core has evolved in such a way that it is woven throughout the curriculum, and this is a great way for students to learn to connect the dots among all the different classes. It encourages our students to think much more broadly and holistically about the different aspects of each of the classes within the core.

So our brand really does go beyond finance. Columbia certainly has terrific and tremendous finance programs—don’t get me wrong—but at the heart, it’s about creating a pathway that teaches our students how to connect the dots, and that in turn creates great future business leaders.

mbaMission: Great. Aside from the obvious advantage of being located in New York City and so close to Wall Street, what is it about Columbia’s finance program that allows it to stand out so much?

AC: I think it’s about the people that make up our community. When I think about the different types of professors we have here, we’re very blessed to have obviously research faculty but also real-world practitioners who come to campus and teach.

What’s so special about our research faculty is that they’re able to slide seamlessly between their research and practice—consulting for governmental bodies or for different multinational companies—and then they are able to apply that learning, that research, that experience to our students’ academic experience in the classroom.

And the practitioners we have are people who may work at boutique investment banks and private equity firms or in asset management as value investors. These people are practitioners by trade, and their real-world experiences make them invaluable to our students. They come here and are able to teach the students exactly what’s going on in real time, as things are happening. And I think that having both types of faculty, that’s a tremendous asset academically as well as professionally for students who are looking for related post-MBA roles.

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One way to save words in your application essays and short-answer responses is to pluralize nouns whenever possible. Singular words often require an article such as “a,” “an” or “the.” These words can add unnecessarily to your word count and can clutter your page without contributing to your argument or style. Consider the following example:

“A manager with an MBA will be able to ascend the corporate ladder faster than a manager who lacks an MBA.” (21 words)

versus

“Managers with MBAs will be able to ascend the corporate ladder faster than managers who lack MBAs.” (17 words)

As you can see, the same idea is presented in both sentences, but one sentence has four words fewer than the other. Given that essays can include dozens or even hundreds of sentences, pluralizing wherever possible is helpful in meeting word count requirements.

Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school to attend, but the educational experience is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on Terry Taylor from the Haas School of Business at the University of California (UC) Berkeley.

After stints at Columbia Business School and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Terry Taylor (“Operations Management”) joined the faculty at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley in 2007. Considering that Taylor, who has a PhD from Stanford in management science and engineering, is often named in student blogs and online student chats as a favorite among the school’s aspiring MBAs, he not surprisingly won the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2009 and again in 2011. He was also named the fifth most popular professor at a top U.S. business school by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2011. Taylor’s academic interests include the economics of operations management and supply chain management. His core “Operations Management” course looks at operational issues confronted by manufacturing and service companies. In addition to reportedly having a well-organized curriculum and classes—which a second year we interviewed said include “no down time”—Taylor can make technical subjects very interesting, sometimes even using references to Seinfeld episodes to illuminate concepts. A second year told mbaMission, “He’s pretty young and has a style that mixes high energy with a dry sense of humor.”

For more information on the defining characteristics of the MBA program at UC-Berkeley Haas or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Many essay writers use medium-length sentences (like this one) in their essays. Few use short sentences (like this one). Likewise, few use long sentences in their essays, even though long sentences (like this one) can often play a useful role in an essay’s structure and story.

Confused? Consider the following example:

“At XYZ Inc., I was the manager in charge of leading a team of 12 staff members. Included in my team were four engineers, four marketing professionals and four market analysts. Our goal was to develop a new thingamajig within six months. We worked really hard over the six months and succeeded. The new thingamajig is now on the market and is selling well. As a result of my efforts, I was promoted to vice-president.”

All of these sentences have approximately the same number of words—and the same rhythm/cadence. Thus, as a group, they are fairly boring to read. Nothing changes. The structure just repeats itself over and over again, as medium-length sentence follows medium-length sentence.

Now consider this example:*

“At XYZ Inc., I was the manager in charge of leading a thingamajig development team consisting of 12 staff members, four of whom were engineers, four were marketing professionals and four were market analysts. We had just six months to launch our new product. The team worked really hard over the six months and succeeded, and the new thingamajig is now on the market, where it is selling well. As a result of my efforts, I was promoted to vice-president.”

The sentences in this paragraph are varied—the first is quite long, the second is very short, the third is medium-long and the fourth medium-short. Sentence variety makes for a much more interesting read, and one very short sentence in the middle of some longer ones can provide precisely the kind of contrast and drama that MBA application essays so often need.

*This is a simplified example for illustration purposes. If this were an actual essay, we would encourage the applicant to offer greater insight into his/her experience launching the product.

Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. To create our targeted Interview Guides, we have drawn on countless communications with MBA students, alumni, admissions officers and applicants, in addition to our vast library of interview reports submitted by current and past clients.

To help you understand what to expect in an interview with your target school and prepare accordingly, each Interview Guide provides

• Insight into what the school is evaluating and hoping to gain from the interview
• An explanation of the school’s approach to interviewing (self-scheduled or invite only, blind versus comprehensive, etc.)
• Lists of the school’s most common questions and themes
• Past applicants’ firsthand accounts of their interview experiences
• Tips on preparing for and responding to common question types
• Help in formulating compelling questions of your own
• Advice on managing the entire interview process, from scheduling to thank you notes

We are proud to offer the first three mbaMission Interview Guides—for the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Columbia Business School and the Tuck School of Business—for only $19.99! Click here to buy your copies today!